Cryonics

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Cryonics is a controversial life extension technique that aims to preserve neural activity and life typically of a recently deceased person through use of preservation techniques and low temperatures so that resurrection may be possible in the future when technologies have improved.

Overview

That is not dead that can eternal lie,

and with strange aeons even death may die.

- H.P. Lovecraft

Margaret, Paul, I wish you the very best and it is my most fervent desire that we meet again, hopefully in a time and place where we can laugh and reminisce about the dark ages from which we were so lucky to have made our escape from...

- Mike Darwin

Cryonics is the preservation of dead persons at temperatures low enough to practically stop decomposition, with the intent of future revival. While there is experimental evidence attesting to the conservation of vitrified tissue and the possibilities of repair; the decision to undergo cryonic preservation after death is an act of faith, not of science.

The two main ideas behind cryonics are Information-Theoretic Death and the technology vitrification. The first idea is the idea that our criteria for death has changed as our technology and our understanding of biology has changed. In the 1800s, a person who drowned was considered dead. Information-theoretic death is the 'ultimate' death, the one that we know as fact is irreversible, and does not depend upon a changing understanding of nature. Information theoretic death is reached when the body (Especially the brain) has been damaged to the point that it is beyond repair; where repair means having enough structure and contextual information to bring the brain, along with the personality, memories and attitudes that it contains, back to a functioning state. If tissues have been properly preserved, this revival could be accomplished through a variety of ways, but even the best methods leave behind irreparable damage, which means memory loss and personality changes, and other neurological (Motor control) damage. The latter is sufficiently generic to be repaired when that kind of technology arrives, the former is unique to each person and impossible to recover.

The second idea, vitrification, is a process through which tissue is lowered to cryogenic temperatures without freezing or forming ice. The most widely believed myth about cryonics is that when people are frozen, ice inside their cells bursts and destroys tissue irreparably. This is false on two points: Modern cryonics uses cryoprotectants which prevent ice damage by vitrifying instead of freezing, and the water that forms ice is mostly outside the cells. A common argument against cryoprotectants is that they are toxic: While true, this only affects the prospects of suspended animation through vitrification, since cryonics patients would probably be revived through more complicated means than just thawing them and applying CPR once a cure for what killed them is found.